An additional case of avian influenza (AI) has been confirmed at a market just south of Seoul, the government said Sunday.
   
A chicken at the traditional market place of Moran in Gyeonggi Province has been confirmed to be infected with the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of the animal disease, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
  
The case marked the first of its kind confirmed in the Seoul metropolitan area, home to nearly half of the country's 50 million population.
  
All 18 shops that carry poultry products at the market place have been shut down while some 3,200 livestock, along with other processed products, from the shops have been destroyed, it said.
  
The government, however, noted it could not immediately confirm whether any infected animals or products have already been moved to other places from the busy market place.
  

 Ministry officials also could not rule out the possibility that infected animals or products may have been sold to consumers but said such products posed little threats.
   
"Avian influenza is known to affect both animals and humans, but no human infection of the H5N8 strain has been known," Lee Chul-il, head of the ministry's livestock policy division, said at a press briefing.
  
The ministry said the infected chicken had been supplied from a farm in Incheon, a port city located some 40 kilometers west of Seoul.
   
An investigation is now underway to find out how and whether animals at the farm have been infected.
   
The case possibly marks a fresh outbreak of the animal disease.
  
Under the latest outbreak, first reported in January, South Korea slaughtered over 14 million animals, which caused billions of dollars in losses. The last outbreak was declared terminated in September.
  
The latest case comes about a week after the government confirmed AI in one of two wild ducks found at a lake in Jeungpyeong, North Chungcheong Province. (Yonhap)